Grand Sport or E-Ray? What Should GM Call the C8 Corvette Hybrid?

Photo Credits: KGP Photography

Big, big news out of General Motors this week with the acknowledgment that a USPTO trademark for the name “Corvette Grand Sport” was recently filed by the automaker. With GM President Mark Reuss coming out in April saying an electrified Corvette will be coming next year, we wanted to ask the Corvette Nation to provide some customer research to GM as to which name is preferred more: Grand Sport or E-Ray.

The Grand Sport name is steeped in Corvette history as the first use of the name came in 1963 with Corvette Chief Engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov who developed and completed five lightweight Corvette racers designed to fight the equally light and very fast Shelby Cobras. GM’s ban on manufacturer-supported racing ultimately led to the 125-run of lightweight Grand Sports to be canceled, both those original five Grand Sports were released into the wild, and today they are the most collectible and highest valued Corvettes on the planet.

Chevy brought the name back in 1996 for a special run of 1,000 Corvette Grand Sports to help close out the C4 generation. Unlike most special editions, the C4 Grand Sports received the one-year-only LT4 engine which bumped up horsepower from the LT1’s 300 hp to 330hp. Painted in Admiral Blue with a full-length white racing stripe, the C4 Grand Sports are one of the most recognized special editions created during Corvette’s now 70-year reign.

The first ‘loaner’ I ever received from Chevrolet was this Torch Red 2010 Corvette Grand Sport Convertible. Photo Credit: Keith Cornett

It was during General Motor’s darkest days that the Grand Sport name shined the brightest and had the biggest impact on the brand. Facing bankruptcy and with future model development on hold, Chevy’s engineers and designers went to work on creating a new model utilizing Chevrolet’s existing parts bin. By taking the widebody design of the C6 Z06 and combining it with the standard LS3 V8, Chevy created a brand new model that slotted perfectly between the base Corvettes and the performance-oriented Z06. The new Grand Sport was available as a Coupe or Convertible, and it offered both manual and automatic transmissions – choices that were unavailable in the C6 Z06 model. Unveiled at the NCM Bash in 2009, the C6 Grand Sport was an immediate hit and would become the C6’s best-selling model through 2013.

After a three-year layoff, GM designers shocked us again with a surprise reveal of the C7 Corvette Grand Sport at the Geneva Motor Show in 2016. Customers and automotive writers loved the new car and called it the best of both worlds as it featured the wider body with upgraded suspension and brakes, while additional high-performance parts like carbon ceramic brakes and the Z06’s aero kit were made available. GM claims that no Grand Sport was originally planned for the C7 generation but constant prodding from customers asking “where is the Grand Sport?” got them to include it. Even now as we are entering our third year of C8 production, there is always that one guy at the Bash or Carlisle asking when the next Grand Sport will be coming. Maybe sooner than we ever thought!

Photo Credit: Peter Chilelli / Fast Pixels

And then there is the Corvette E-Ray. The E-Ray name was first trademarked in 2015 by General Motors and renewed again in 2020. GM had also registered the name Manta Ray in 2015 which has its roots as one of the early C3 concept cars, but that trademark was abandoned in 2020 seemingly in favor of the E-Ray name winning out. As the next new Corvette is set to be a hybrid-electric car with the Stingray’s 495-hp LT2 V8 combined with a front mount electric motor(s), the E-Ray name makes the right connotations that it’s an electrified Stingray.

Unlike some of the other naming conventions such as GM’s recent history of simply adding EV to existing vehicle names like the Silverado EV or the Hummer EV, E-Ray does stand out. But then again, we’re going to see everybody doing the “E-” dance for their naming of electrified vehicles. Ford did a similar dance in bringing out the Mustang Mach-E with a play on using their own historic “Mach 1” moniker that Ford has featured off and on over the years, much like our Grand Sports. Unlike the coming electrified Corvette, the Mach-E shares nothing with ICE-powered Mustangs other than a running horse as its logo.

In our opinion, E-Ray is so much better than E-Corvette or the Corvette EV. It’s futuristic-sounding (for now) and it will help to bridge the gap between the gas-powered Corvettes and the eventual fully electric Corvette. So perhaps E-Ray does better justice for the hybrid Corvette than the historic Grand Sport name.

So let’s put the naming decision into the hands of the Corvette Nation. Which name would you choose for the electrified grand touring model coming next year?

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